Sleepless
by Yuuki Sakurai
Summary: Clare and Eli, a night under the stars     One Shot


_**Sleepless…**_

I smile to myself. If this were a dream, I would never want to wake up. But thank god it's much better than that. This is actually real.

Don't think I had this planned. This was actually far off from what I was expecting today. But just because I wasn't expecting it, didn't mean I wasn't going to welcome it. Eli had suddenly appeared at my doorstep earlier this evening and asked if we could hang out. I wasn't going to turn him away, not with his green eyes bearing down on me, making my soft heart do flips.

I don't know how we ended up outside, both of us lying on my mother's orange and green flowered blanket. My hands were on my sides, not really sure where I should put them, while Eli's pale hands were draped around his stomach. Mom was at another fundraiser, and dad was at the motel. I guess something good came out of their fighting. Alone time with Eli. A smile played on my lips.

We had spent maybe an hour talking, watching the sun go down and point out the stars that appeared with the moon. We shared kept secrets and told jokes and gave sarcastic remarks. Possibly the best night of my life. After awhile we went quiet. I was nervous to lock eyes so I stare at the night sky as I spoke;

"Eli, I think I need to tell you something."

I wait for a response. A sarcastic retort along with a hint of a smirk. But it's silence. I take my chance and look over at him. He's facing me, his head turned to the side, but his eyes are closed. He's sleeping. I smile and take in his face. I notice his nice lips, and perfect nose, and I have to fight myself to run my hands through his hair. It's funny, I always pictured him smirking in his sleep. He's so perfect. I decide to make my speech, even though his mind is miles away. Just as a practice.

"Eli, I think I'm falling in love with you. It's weird. You're sarcastic, annoying, hard headed, and you've gotten me detention maybe six times already. At first I wanted nothing to do with you. But now," I take a deep breath, "I can't get enough of you. I think about you every day, in some way or another. You're always on my mind and it's driving me crazy. I want to scream in the middle of a crowd with you, and spend my nights looking at the stars and talking about stupid stuff with you. And maybe you don't like me back, maybe you don't feel the same way, and that's ok, but I guess I just had to get that off my chest."

I look back at the stars and sigh. I wonder if I will ever have the guts to say that to him when he's _awake. _One day, I hope. And maybe he'll actually like me back.

"Is that so?"

My body goes numb and my mind goes blank. This can't be happening. I look back over at Eli and he's propped up on his shoulder, looking me dead in the eyes.

I laugh nervously, "I'm guessing you weren't asleep?"

"Hardly." He smirked.

"Well," I get up from the blanket and wring my hands. My stomach is twisting into knots and I think I'm about to be sick, "You should probably go then. It's getting late."

Eli gets up too, and somehow gets dangerously close to me. I bite down on my lip to keep myself from running away.

"Well, since I'm so hard headed, I don't think I'll be leaving anytime soon."

I inch back a little but he takes one more step forward. I'm practically suffocating.

"Was all that you said true?" His eyes narrow, "All of it?"

I gulp and nod. Please just go home, save me the embarrassment! He bends his head down and at first I think he's going to be sick. But then I hear him laughing. My face turns red and I think I'm the one going to be sick.

"You're such a jerk!" I yell at him and storm off.

I almost reach the door when his hand wraps around my wrist and he twirls me around, I'm going to protest but it's too late, our lips crash together. I jerk away out of surprise.

"W-what was that?"

He smirks and his eyes twinkle a bit, "I was showing you that there was no way on earth that I could never not like you back." He traces his hand on my cheek and cups my chin.

"And why's that?" I half whisper.

"Because I love you too." And our lips meet for the second time.

Perfect.


End file.
